4 Habits Of A Joy-Filled Marriage - A 6-Day Devotional Sample

God created human beings with intimate detail and purpose. He created them in His image and He created them to share in His glad-to-be-together joy. Connecting together in joy is the great and glorious vision of humanity’s future. Joy in the Lord is etched into the deepest part of the human heart and drives the deepest impulses of the human mind. Joy is God’s gift to keep our marriages strong.  

ONE OF THE MOST startling revelations to come out of the latest breakthroughs in brain science is the discovery that there is no more powerful motivator in life than joy. It is nearly universally recognized that your brain functions at its best when it is running on the fuel of joy. You may not have realized it, but joy is the key to long-lasting marital bliss. 

JOY AND BRAIN SCIENCE

Your emotional capacity directly relates to joy. Emotional capacity can be thought of as your ability to bounce back from difficult emotions or hard situations. When you fall in love, your emotional capacity soars. The rush of joy gives you an emotional high that makes it feel like nothing can get you down. On the other hand, have you ever had days when your joy level was so low it felt like more than you could handle just to get out of bed? Joy is the key to emotional capacity. When you have lots of joy, life just works better.

When joy is high, your marriage also works better. We’re guessing you didn’t get married because you thought you would be miserable with the person you love. You got married because you thought you would have more joy with him or her. However, as you may have discovered, joy can be an elusive thing. Most of us have no idea what causes joy or how to revive it when it begins to fade. We want to provide you with a clear path and a variety of brain science–based exercises that will help you build a joy-filled marriage.

Even the best marriages can use a little guidance at times. We think you will find the content and exercises in this plan to be an invaluable guide for taking your marriage to the next level.

-To help rewire your brain and marriage for  joy, we’ve developed 15 minute exercises for each day of the YouVersion plan.

Write Your Joy: 15 MIN

Composing a love letter can be a meaningful activity that you will cherish for years to come. This heartfelt exchange provides an opportunity to express your heart and share your love the old-fashioned way. You will need paper and pen for this exercise.

1. Take a moment to think about what you love about your spouse, then write your spouse a love letter. While this doesn’t have to be volumes of books, it does need to be longer than three sentences. Take the necessary time to complete this. 

2. When finished, take turns reading your love letter to your spouse. Let your eyes light up when you read and look at your spouse. 6 MIN

3. Discuss what you enjoyed about this exercise, then close with quiet cuddling and resting. 3 MIN